VOA CW Media News June 19 from Glenn Hauser
NATO broadcasting to Yugoslavia is continuing from the Commando Solo
aircraft; besides 1003 kHz on mediumwave, a second frequency appeared
June 8th, first reported to hard-core-dx by Karel Honzik in the Czech
Republic. This one too does not follow European frequency spacing, on
1270 kHz. Mike Barraclough in England heard the signal as early as
2005 Universal Time, but a few nights later, Fredrik Douren in Sweden
noted 1003 closing down at 2104, and 1270 opening at 2106. BBC
Monitoring says the new frequency signs off around 2200 UT.
Bob Foxworth in Florida says he toured the inside of one of the EC-130
flying transmitter aircraft two years ago at an airshow in Tampa. The
controls he saw could pick any frequency to 10 Hertz resolution, so
it's no accident it's on 1270, not 1269. Jari Lehtinen in Finland
heard an ID as Sever-Atlantik Radio, which means North Atlantic Radio.
Andy Sennitt of Radio Netherlands told the swprograms newsgroup that
RN began shortwave broadcast relays from Flevo of the station
originally in Pristina, Kosova, Radio 21, now originating via
internet from FYRO Macedonia. Listen between 1827 and 2025 UT on 9495,
including English news in the last few minutes. 9495 is blocked in
the Americas by WHRI, so we can try http://www.radio21.net
Via BBC Monitoring, the Belgrade newspaper Glas Javnosti quoted the
Serbian information minister that rebroadcasting of Radio Free Europe
and the VOA is forbidden by law, but they are again being heard in
Serbia on FM.
Meanwhile RTS television in Belgrade reported that Radio Belgrade
programs can be followed all day on the internet at this new address:
http://www.yubc.net -- that's yankee, uniform, bravo, charlie
Other internet and television news comes from the secluded Himalayan
country of Bhutan. Don Moore forwards a story from Reuters that in
accordance with the modernization policy of King Jigme, both television
and the internet were inaugurated June first. Check the animated
website http://www.druknet.net.bt That's delta, romeo, uniform, kilo.
The outlook is in question for BBC World, the global television news
network, which keeps losing money in its attempt to compete with CNN --
as much as 100 million pounds in the past eight years, according to
BBC's upcoming annual report. A story in The Times by Nicholas
Hellen, sent on to us by Mike Cooper, says the program has been
protected by outgoing BBC director-general John Birt, but his successor,
soon to be named, is expected to re-evaluate it.
Trevor Brook of Surrey Electronics, Limited, has been battling for
thirteen years to get UK government permission to operate a private
shortwave station. He has taken the case to the European Court of
Human Rights, charging that the government has a covert policy of
restricting media access. The matter drags on as the British government
asks for extensions, and Trevor Brook makes his case, says a story
via Chris McWhinnie in the British DX Club. Meanwhile, we note
that what sounded like a private British commercial shortwave
station, Merlin Network One, has come and gone during the past year.
Australia has begun digital radio tests, for an 18-month trial period.
The first transmission came from station 2KY which is on 1017 kHz in
Parramatta, New South Wales. This per an item from Alan Reekie via
Eric Cooper of the National Radio Club.
Via BBC Monitoring, USA Digital Radio has signed a joint technology
and marketing agreement with Broadcast Electronics to provide a
"seamless transition" to the US system of inband onchannel digital
broadcasting.
Via Joel Rubin, The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel's first all-
English radio station Radio West was shut down indefinitely June 15
when police raided its Jerusalem studio as part of the Communications
Ministry's crackdown on unlicensed stations. Last month, police declared
war on pirates after their broadcasts played havoc with airport traffic
control. Radio West had been operating for a year and a half, with news
and music for some 280,000 Israelis from English-speaking countries.
Home News:
Via Chet Copeland, a story by Washington Post radio columnist Frank
Ahrens tells about a new Radio-Television Museum, which opened last
Saturday in the suburb of Bowie, Maryland, with lots of antique radio
sets and art-deco style wooden loop antennas.
WETA in Washington is sticking to its format change, with NPR's Morning
Edition, a news show, instead of classical music, even though its
listener mail is running 54 to one against it.
Not only Public Radio International as reported last week, but now also
National Public Radio has an agreement with CD Radio, the satellite-to-
car broadcaster, to provide two programming channels, launching at the
end of next year -- one channel with news, talk and info; the other with
entertainment and cultural features.
Former wrestler Jesse Ventura has returned to the airwaves as a talk
show host in his new capacity as governor of Minnesota. Via Artie
Bigley we have a story from the Saint Paul Pioneer Press by Jim
Ragsdale that Ventura is now on the powerful Minneapolis station
WCCO and a statewide network with a live call-in every Friday from
11 am to noon.
This is the final broadcast day for CBL, 740 in Toronto from CBC
Radio One. DXers eagerly await the opportunity to hear something else
on another vacant Canadian channel for a while; CBC maintains local
reception will be better on several FM transmitters instead, primarily
99.1. Meanwhile, a temporary 10-watt transmitter is on the air in
Toronto on 106.3 from the Aboriginal Voices Festival until June 21st,
say Saul Chernos and William Hepburn, of amfmtvdx.
June 19th is also Kid's Day at the American Radio Relay League, as
amateur radio operators are being urged to invite children to be guest
hams. Between 18 and 24 UT, listen between 14270 and 14300, or 28350 to
28400 kilohertz. [More info on this at http://www.jzap.com/k7rat/]
That, from the ARRL letter via John Norfolk.
You're invited to hear more about some of these and many other stories
on my own show World of Radio. Among the airtimes are Saturday 1130 UT
on 12160 and 6975; Sunday 0200 on 6975 and 15049; 0230 and 0630 on 5070.
Check my website for complete information:
http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio
For VOA News Now, -- I'm Glenn Hauser. ###